Woman's Fiance Used to Be Her Celebrity Crush: 'I Was Obsessed'
Katie Wallace, 26, remembers waiting outside the Richard Rogers' Theater seven years ago, waiting for David Del Rio to come out and give her an autograph.
This woman was once a fan girl anxiously awaiting her celebrity crush's autograph. Today, the pair are engaged.
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"Who knew that seven years ago, when we saw that show and got tickets on a whim [...] that was going to be the guy you marry [and] have kids with," Katie Wallace, 26, told insideEdition.com
Wallace explained the story started in 2010, at a production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway hit, In the Heights. She was a student at New York University at the time, and wanted to see the production with her parents while they were visiting from out of town.
"At the end, we were waiting for everyone’s autographs, and my dad said to me, 'Hey, do you want me to get a picture of you with the guy who played Sonny?'" Wallace told InsideEdition.com. "I had a little crush on him because I thought he was really good, funny and cute."
She said she tried to play it cool even though she had scribbled a heart next to the actor David Del Rio’s name in the program, and took a picture with the actor from the other side of the barricade.
That became the first of six times she would watch the production.
"I was obsessed with theater – especially musical theater," she said.
Three years later, Wallace found herself in Los Angeles chatting with a group of people at a party when the same play came up. Little did she know, Del Rio was part of the group.
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"I actually wanted to introduce her to a friend of mine [when] we just started talking about musical theater," Del Rio told InsideEdition.com. "One of my boys said, 'Well, you were in a Broadway show.'"
Starstruck, Wallace said she thought to herself, “When he said he was from In the Heights, I said, 'Could this be David Del Rio?'"
She then asked him to perform one of his hit numbers from the show to prove himself, and like any doting fan, she corrected him when he mixed up the words.
"Now knowing him, I’m sure he hated this because he’s not that kind of showy guy," she joked.
The unlikely pair eventually started dating, and earlier this month, they found themselves at the same Richard Rogers Theater — currently playing Lin-Manuel Miranda's latest hit, Hamilton — when Del Rio dropped down to one knee.
"I always had an idea of how I was going to propose," he said. "But the minute I started speaking, we landed at the stage door and I just started forgetting everything I was going to say except the question."
And she said yes.
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"I think the fandom is over but whenever I get back to New York, whenever we go back to that theater, I’m just totally reminded like, 'Oh my gosh, I used to love you.'"
For Del Rio, "It’s a cool story, but every single day we look at each other and agree that the better story is still ahead."
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